Letter to the Editor on DEP and Broomall’s Dam

What follows is our Letter to the Editor sent on June 10, 2013 to local newspapers:

On May 10, 2013, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) sent a letter to Media Borough reporting that the condition of Broomall’s Lake Dam at Third Street “continues to deteriorate” and that the agency planned to take action on June 12, 2013 to “correct an unsafe condition.”

PA DEP announced that it planned to drawdown the impoundment by siphoning Broomall’s Lake. PA DEP also stated that it had made repeated requests to Broomall’s Lake Country Club (BLCC), which it named the owner of record, to maintain drawdown of the lake to ensure dam safety. However, BLCC had informed PA DEP that it felt that dam safety was the responsibility of other parties.

Noting the status of legal responsibility for the dam continued to be disputed by BLCC, Delaware County, and Media Borough, the PA DEP declared that it intended to breach (remove) the dam if no progress was made to replace or remove the dam by November 1, 2013.

The leadership of the Friends of Glen Providence Park believes that Judge Proud’s decision to revoke the Stipulation Agreement and PA DEP’s declaration of its intent to remove the dam – if no party assumes ownership and responsibility for dam safety – presents an opportunity for achieving the best outcomes for public safety and environmental protection.

From the first time that the engineers’ plans for the Third Street project were presented to the public in the summer of 2011, many residents in Media and surrounding communities expressed serious concerns about the environmental and recreational impact of the project on the County’s historic Glen Providence Park.

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2 Comments

seems to me that taking 17 years to fix this bridge, of course, it is in an “unsafe” condition. There was an agreement made some time ago to repair the bridge with monies contributed by PennDOT. Why wasn’t it taken care of at that time?

Although the road has been closed to traffic for about 17 years, the dam underneath the road has been a source of concern since 1980. Securing funding and obtaining an engineering plan has taken a great deal of time, but it is the question of ownership of the new dam which has been the largest obstacle.

The agreement you may be referring to failed to fully address ownership or to anticipate that the funding would cover dam removal and stream restoration. Any delay to actual construction is likely to result from litigation and/or need to reach agreement on a new design. In general, dam removal and stream restoration could be completed within 18 months.

Please be sure to look at the borough website and previous articles found on this website for more information.